Shadowy Reunion
by Magelet1
Summary: Jenny's really depressed, but something happens to lift her mood, and things don't turn out how she expected-quite.
1. Shaken

Shadowy Reunion  
Chapter 1:Shaken  
By: Magelet  
  
Shaken.   
  
One of the three things that Jenny Thornton felt. Shaken, lost, and a need to be held. She felt scared and alone,   
but nothing could seem to help her. She was looking weak, too- thin and unkempt. Her best friend in the whole world, not to   
mention her boyfriend, was dead. Gone forever, beyond her reach.   
  
Like Julian.  
  
She didn't know what caused her to think of the shadow man. The one with snow-white hair and impossibly colored blue   
eyes. He had loved her. He loved her so much that he had let her go and sacrificed himself - let himself be un-made instead   
of her being taken into the shadow world and toyed with like other victims. And somehow, after all that he put her and her   
friends through, and, actually, during that time, she had fallen in love with him too. And somehow now, without a doubt, she   
knew that she needed him.   
  
Badly.  
  
It figured that the time Tom had to die would be Christmas time, their favorite time of the year. Eighteen. Too young   
to die. He would have been nineteen soon after and now almost twenty. Tom had learned to accept that she cared about Julian,   
but that she would always be faithful to him- as long as he was alive, anyway, and they loved each other. He even let her   
wear Julian's ring in remembrance of him and the Shadow Man's love for her.   
  
The ring.  
  
The ring had first brought trouble between the two, before Tom had come to and understanding. Tom felt that she was   
Julian's and that there was nothing that he could do. The inscription in the ring had read 'All I refuse & thee I chuse'.   
When Julian had been un-made - she now choked at the thought - the words had changed to 'I am my only master'. She wished   
that she could believe it. But he'd still disappeared into the shadows before her eyes.  
  
Shadows.  
  
Even shadows reminded Jenny of him. Her Shadow Man. She pulled a blue-gray cardigan around herself and paced the   
small-ish room. She was glad to have a dorm room to herself this year. Collage was all work and no fun for her, at parties   
she was literally left in the dark. In the shadows that reminded her of him. She didn't even go home for Christmas this year,   
why bother, she was depressed and no one could help. And it was Christmas Eve.  
  
Christmas Eve.  
  
The eve of her once-favorite holiday meant absolutely nothing to her this year. No amount of the 'innocence' or   
'sweetness' that Julian had told her that she possessed could effect her dark mood. Her friends had desperately tried on   
many occasions and failed. She shuffled over to her desk and plopped down in the chair, almost glad at the feeling of a   
slight pain in her neck from the sudden jolt, because it hinted that she could still feel something- physical pain. She   
picked up a pen and put it to the paper and began to wright.  
  
A letter.  
  
'I know that you can't read this Julian, but I miss you more than anything. I told you that I cared about you. I   
never told you that I love you and need you. You said you needed me, loved me, but I never returned the favor. I never knew   
it myself until Tom died. The feelings I had for him dammed up the flood of emotion for you. I can't think about much else.   
I know you're gone, but I can't bare the fact much longer. I almost died once and you saved me. Dying wasn't so bad, at   
least I had no feeling. I can feel almost nothing now as it is. there wouldn't be much change, except for that I might be at   
peace, and I might be with Tom or you. If only you were here with me, everything would be right.'   
  
*Yawn*  
  
She picked up the paper, dropping the pen. How could she write something like that? She snorted inwardly - that was   
an easy one; it was almost exactly how she felt - all alone and almost suicidal. It scared her. But it was late. Tears   
trickling down her face she slid the letter under her pillow and laid down, wrapping herself in her blankets as if to be   
protected from the darkness and loneliness that the air around her reeked with. She buried her face in her pillow and cried   
herself to sleep. As she drifted off, she thought of the one word that would describe best how she, Jenny, now felt.  
  
Shaken.  
  
  



	2. Reunion

Shadowy Reunion  
Chapter 2: Reunion  
By: Magelet  
  
Jenny woke up and shivered, pulling her comforter tight around her. Christmas and she had no one. She needed to be   
held, to be kissed: to be loved. She wished with all her heart right now for Julian. She held his ring that she wore almost   
religiously like and engagement ring to her lips. Reaching to her bedside table she grasped the silver rose that he had given   
her twice. The whole while she'd had her eyes closed, imagining Julian here with her, imagining that she could feel his   
presence even in the shadows. Holding the rose in her hand, she sat up and opened her eyes to the semi-dark room, looking   
around. Next to her bed was a long, thin, white box with a single red rose on top of it.  
  
A red rose.  
  
The symbol of ever lasting love. Fidelity. She dropped her silver rose and it landed on her comforter-clad lap.   
Shaking slightly, Jenny brushed her 'amber'-colored hair out of her eyes and reached for the box, pulling it up onto her bed.   
She took a deep breath, clearing her mind quickly. Jenny slowly moved the rose, brushing the soft petals to her cheek as she   
had the silver rose at first, smiling, and sighing gently; soft as Julian's touch or hair. Then, dead serious, she opened the   
box and was surprised at what she saw.  
  
A staff.  
  
The glowing symbols on it were familiar to her, and she'd seen it before. It was the Shadow World's runestave. All   
over it were little symbols. A slip of paper had several runes on it and was wrapped around a very sharp-looking knife. One   
thought came to Jenny's mind.  
  
Julian.  
  
She pulled her ring off quickly and checked the inscription. It was still 'I am my only master'. Without another   
thought, she took the knife and swiftly but carefully carved the shallow runes into the staff where they had been cut off.   
She had been studying runes since Julian's un-making and knew what they were, their names, what they did, and how to use them.   
She had studied all kinds - all the known ones. She went over their meanings in her mind. After a moment of looking at her   
handy-work, she wondered if it needed charging. But the letters began glowing.  
  
Brighter.  
  
It grew cold. The runestave got so cold that she was afraid that it would freeze in her grip, her left hand with it.   
The room's temperature itself was dropping, and growing a bit darker. The shadows in the corner or her dorm room flickered   
and shimmered. They began to take a human shape, but not before she saw the eyes.  
  
His eyes.  
  
Blue. So impossibly blue, they were unmistakably Julian's eyes. His body took form. His soft, long-ish, icy-white,   
hair; hard muscles; perfect facial features - they all appeared. He was wearing the outfit that she had last seen him in - a   
dark duster and black pants with a white T-shirt.  
  
"Julian!"  
  
Jenny's eyes filled with tears, and for the first time since Tom had died, they were tears of joy. "Oh my god, Julian!"   
She leapt out of her bed and ran over to him, flinging her arms around him. Yes, he was solid.  
  
It was him.  
  
"Jenny!" he said in surprise, "You know me? But I never told you my name, and you forgot what happened when you were   
five!" He sounded so confused, but wrapped his arms around her, holding her firmly to him. She buried her face in his shirt,   
clinging to him, laughing and crying at the same time. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Jenny had calmed down   
enough to talk sensibly.  
  
Talk to him.  
  
"Of course you've told me your name, you told me at the beginning the first game, and for my nightmare I remembered   
what happened in my Grandpa's basement, then later, at the end, I remembered you. I'm really sorry I kept being so awful to   
you, it's just that the games were so awful, and I thought I loved Tom, and I did, but I really actually love you, and..."   
She stopped, choking up again. "I'm so glad you're back." She buried her face into his chest once more.  
  
Crying softly.  
  
"But Jenny, I don't understand. I know I've always watched you," He told her, stroking her hair. "but other than when   
you were five, we've never met."  



	3. Confusion

Shadowy Reunion  
Chapter 3: Confusion  
By: Magelet  
  
The words echoed in her mind. 'We've never met.' Jenny pulled away from him slightly, just enough to see into his eyes.   
Looking into their icy depths, she searched for any trace of feeling. She found one. The same one that she felt herself.  
  
Confusion.  
  
"Julian, we have met. You can't have forgotten the Game. Can't you remember any of the three of them? The first in the   
paper house that you gave to me at the More Games store? Or the second one with the paper dolls and the base in photograph of   
the cafeteria? The last one in the amusement park in the Shadow World with the coins. I almost died in that one. You saved me,   
and I'll never forget that. How could you? Julian, please!" She pleaded as he looked more and more confused and almost pained.   
She started crying again, tears streaming silently down her cheeks.  
  
"Jenny."  
  
He pushed her back, holding her shoulders firmly. "Listen to me. I've been watching you since you were five. Only   
watching. A few years ago something happened and I can't remember why I couldn't see you for a while. Then after that I felt   
light, like I was in a whole different world, not the Shadow one, there was sunshine and light and warmth and happiness and a   
sense of peace. I didn't feel like a shadow man, I felt almost human. I could still watch you and had control of things around   
me, only you seemed different and you had a ring. You look at it all the time and I couldn't think of why, but the inscription   
seemed familiar. What you said happened with the Game, if it did happen, and I'm not calling you a liar, must happened in the   
time that I can't remember. You must believe me, Jenny. Please."  
  
"Please."  
  
"Julian. You gave me my ring. It was at the end of the first game. I promised to be yours, then I broke my promise.   
Then you told me in the second game that if I won, I'd be free of the promise. I won. But then I got the ring back in the last   
game and I've kept it and worn it. Don't you remember? 'All I refuse and thee I choose.' That's what it said. And when you d...   
d... were unmade" She stammered, not being able to bring herself to say 'died'. "It changed to 'I am my only master.'" Jenny   
suddenly grasped her ring and drew it quickly off, checking the inscription on the inside.   
  
'All I refuse and thee I chuse.'  
  
"Oh Julian!" She put it back on and placed her hands along his jaw, the heel of her palms on either side of his chin.   
"It's back! The original inscription is back!" She leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips to express her emotion of the   
moment. Moving her hands to his back and her arms around his neck, she leaned on him, pressing her forehead to his. Julian   
shifted his hands to around her waist, pulling her to him more and kissing her.   
  
It was like heaven.  
  
The kiss was just like a lot of his kisses, starting soft and gentle, hardly there at all, like butterflies tickling   
her lips with their wings, then started turning warmer and wilder by the second. Another way it was like his former kisses was   
she totally lost herself in him. She forgot anything and everything but the fact that she was with Julian and that she loved   
him. He played with her hair, it was loose and down to the bottom of her back, she hadn't cut it in the midst of her depression,   
so it had grown long. Now she didn't mind.   
  
She didn't mind at all.  
  
A few minutes later, they pulled apart. Jenny pulled him over to the bed and they sat down and studied each other.   
Not much had changed about Julian, but wait, maybe something had. "Julian, are you older?"   
  
"Of course."  
  
"I thought you aged differently?"  
  
"After a few hundred years, yes."  
  
"But you're still close to my age physically?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Yes!  
  
"I must look awful." Jenny muttered suddenly, thinking of it for the first time as she pulled her long honey-colored   
hair over her left shoulder.  
  
"Not to me. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen you more beautiful." He tucked a tendril of hair behind her ear and   
kissed her lightly.  
  
"I love you Julian." She said, kissing him back. He pulled her over to him and on to his lap. She sighed and closed   
her eyes, resting her chin on his shoulder. He kissed the back of her neck like he had when he had been disguised as Zach in   
the dark room. Jenny just held on to him tightly, almost afraid to let go as he peppered her with tiny kisses.  
  
There was a knock at the door and it opened.  
  
"Oh my God!" a new voice said  



	4. Shadows

Shadowy Reunion  
Chapter 4: Shadows  
By: Magelet  
  
"What is going on here?!" Michael yelled at the two, just as Audrey screamed "What's he doing here?" They were both   
as furious as dumbstruck.  
  
"Figures."  
  
Jenny wasn't exactly ecstatic at her friends for deciding to spontaneously burst into her room when they hadn't been   
by for months.  
  
"Might as well tell them to shut their mouths. They might swallow a fly." Julian sighed, de-tangling himself from his   
love, and turning to face the intruders.  
  
'Why did they have to come now?' he thought  
  
"Hello Audrey. Michael." He acknowledged politely. "Please come in and shut the door." He added, voice low, and with   
a hint of danger, but it was a protective tone.  
  
The invading couple complied wordlessly, closing their mouths.  
  
"Well sit down. I'm sure you're going to be a while here." Jenny snapped, exasperated, as her friends sat on the two   
chairs near her bed.   
  
'Jenny's being awful mean.' Michael thought, surprised.  
  
Something odd caught Audrey's eye. Reaching down discreetly, she picked up the piece of paper that was laying on the   
floor beside Jenny's bed. Glancing at it her eyes widened. The note was practically the work of someone clinically depressed!!  
  
'I know that you can't read this Julian, but I miss you more than anything. I told you that I cared about you. I never   
told you that I love you and need you. You said you needed me, loved me, but I never returned the favor. I never knew it   
myself until Tom died. The feelings I had for him dammed up the flood of emotion for you. I can't think about much else.'   
  
"I'll just tell you in short, you two. Julian's back. If you have a problem with that keep it to yourself, we don't   
want to hear it. Would you, if you loved someone as much as I love him?"  
  
Audrey bowed her head as if she were acting bashful, but it was really to finish the note.  
  
'I know you're gone, but I can't bare the fact much longer. I almost died once and you saved me. Dying wasn't so bad,   
at least I had no feeling. I can feel almost nothing now as it is. there wouldn't be much change, except for that I might be   
at peace, and I might be with Tom or you. If only you were here with me, everything would be right.'  
  
'My God!' she thought 'This thing's suicidal! She might have really killed herself! I guess she really does love him,   
though any reason she'd have to is beyond me!' Looking up sharply she met Jenny's eyes. They were a sharp pine-green, as if   
making a point. Audrey's were filled with sorrow, and understanding, but were also sharp.  
  
"Now that we're covered that Jennifer," Audrey barked, regaining her voice from her anger that Jenny, their Jenny,   
could actually write something like this. "Maybe you can explain this!" she waved the piece of paper in her friend's face.   
  
Julian snatched it out of the air and read it quickly. The last line caught his eye. 'If only you were here with me,   
everything would be right.'  
  
"Oh God, Jenny!" he whispered, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly to him. "Oh God Jenny, I didn't know   
you felt that way! Oh Jenny!" the Shadowman murmured into her soft, mussed honey-colored hair. There would have been tears in   
his eyes, but Shadowpeople can't cry. His eyes did gleam, though, like one's eyes when brimming with tears. He kissed the top   
of her head gently over and over again. Jenny had begun to cry into his shirt again. Rocking her gently, he kept a tight hold   
on his love.  
  
At a second thought, a few minutes later, he turned his head slightly towards Audrey and her boyfriend. "I think you   
should leave. Come back some other time." He mouthed. They nodded and exited the dormitory room.  
  
"I love you, Jenny." He told her. "I'm never going to leave you ever again. Ever. Calm down, baby. Shhhhh." He   
whispered gently. She pulled back slightly, wiping her eyes. "Come on, get dressed and we'll go someplace for lunch."  
  
Jenny smiled weakly and went over to her dresser to pick out something to wear.  



End file.
